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Understanding Vulnerability in Disasters

Vulnerability describes characteristics that make communities, systems, or assets susceptible to harm from hazards. Vulnerability arises from physical, social, economic, and environmental factors like poor building construction, lack of awareness, and environmental degradation. There are four main types of vulnerability: physical, social, economic, and environmental. Risk is the potential losses from a disaster, including lives, health, livelihoods and assets, over a specified time. It considers the probability of hazards occurring and the degree of vulnerability. Risk can be calculated as the probability of a hazard multiplied by the vulnerability. There are different approaches to dealing with risk, such as acceptance, avoidance, reduction, and transfer like insurance.

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85 views2 pages

Understanding Vulnerability in Disasters

Vulnerability describes characteristics that make communities, systems, or assets susceptible to harm from hazards. Vulnerability arises from physical, social, economic, and environmental factors like poor building construction, lack of awareness, and environmental degradation. There are four main types of vulnerability: physical, social, economic, and environmental. Risk is the potential losses from a disaster, including lives, health, livelihoods and assets, over a specified time. It considers the probability of hazards occurring and the degree of vulnerability. Risk can be calculated as the probability of a hazard multiplied by the vulnerability. There are different approaches to dealing with risk, such as acceptance, avoidance, reduction, and transfer like insurance.

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jaslor
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Vulnerability and Risk

What is Vulnerability

Vulnerability describes the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or


asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard. There are many aspects
of vulnerability, arising from various physical, social, economic, and environmental factors.
Examples may include:

 poor design and construction of buildings,


 inadequate protection of assets,
 lack of public information and awareness,
 limited official recognition of risks and preparedness measures, and
 disregard for wise environmental management.

Vulnerability varies significantly within a community and over time. This definition identifies
vulnerability as a characteristic of the element of interest (community, system or asset)
which is independent of its exposure. However, in common use the word is often used more
broadly to include the element’s exposure.

The above explanation was taken from the United Nations (UN) International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (ISDR) Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction. Follow the link to look up other
terminologies.

There are four (4) main types of vulnerability:

1. Physical Vulnerability may be determined by aspects such as population density levels,


remoteness of a settlement, the site, design and materials used for critical infrastructure
and for housing (UNISDR).

Example: Wooden homes are less likely to collapse in an earthquake, but are more
vulnerable to fire.

2. Social Vulnerability refers to the inability of people, organizations and societies to


withstand adverse impacts to hazards due to characteristics inherent in social interactions,
institutions and systems of cultural values. It is linked to the level of well being of
individuals, communities and society. It includes aspects related to levels of literacy and
education, the existence of peace and security, access to basic human rights, systems of
good governance, social equity, positive traditional values, customs and ideological beliefs
and overall collective organizational systems (UNISDR).

Example: When flooding occurs some citizens, such as children, elderly and differently-able,
may be unable to protect themselves or evacuate if necessary.

3. Economic Vulnerability. The level of vulnerability is highly dependent upon the


economic status of individuals, communities and nations The poor are usually more
vulnerable to disasters because they lack the resources to build sturdy structures and put
other engineering measures in place to protect themselves from being negatively impacted
by disasters.

Example: Poorer families may live in squatter settlements because they cannot afford to live
in safer (more expensive) areas.
4. Environmental Vulnerability. Natural resource depletion and resource degradation are
key aspects of environmental vulnerability.

Example: Wetlands, such as the Caroni Swamp, are sensitive to increasing salinity from sea
water, and pollution from stormwater runoff containing agricultural chemicals, eroded soils,
etc.

What is Risk

Risk (or more specifically, disaster risk) is the potential disaster losses (in terms of lives,
health status, livelihoods, assets and services) which could occur to a particular community
or a society over some specified future time period. (Reference UNISDR Terminology)

It considers the probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths, injuries,


property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environmentally damaged) resulting
from interactions between natural or human induced hazards and vulnerable conditions.

Risk can be calculated using the following equation: Risk = Probability of Hazard x Degree of
Vulnerability.

There are different ways of dealing with risk, such as:

Risk Acceptance: an informed decision to accept the possible consequences and likelihood
of a particular risk.

Risk Avoidance: an informed decision to avoid involvement in activities leading to risk


realization.

Risk Reduction refers to the application of appropriate techniques to reduce the likelihood
of risk occurrence and its consequences.

Risk Transfer involves shifting of the burden of risk to another party. One of the most
common forms of risk transfer is Insurance.

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